AOL wants to organize your email clutter with Alto

Topics: From the Wires,

NEW YORK (AP) — The Internet icon that bought email to the masses with its classic “You’ve got mail” slogan now wants to help people organize the flood of messages in their Gmail, Yahoo mail and other accounts.

AOL Inc. launched Alto on Thursday. It’s not a new email service. Rather, Alto works in concert with other email accounts to clean out and organize messages, social network notifications, daily deals, photos and email attachments. The service is available for free by invitation to users in a closed “beta” test.

Users can set up Alto so that mass-emails, such as those from retailers or daily deals sites, skip their inbox entirely and show up only in Alto. Instead of a text-based list that people are used to in email, Alto uses what it calls “stacks.” These take up most of the application’s main page. You can use Alto’s existing stacks such as “daily deals,” ”social notifications,” ”retailers” or “photos.” Or, you can create your own stacks — for messages from family members, newsletters you subscribe to or event invitations, for example.

Alto also lets users “snooze” certain emails, which can be useful for bill pay notifications or invites.

One downside — Alto is not compatible with Microsoft’s email services.

AOL said the goal of Alto is to make email less stressful, harkening back to the days when “You’ve got mail” made people excited. Excited is not the first emotion that comes to mind for most email users today when a message arrives in one of their inboxes.

Alto was developed in New York-based AOL’s Silicon Valley offices in Palo Alto, Calif. The company’s email service is No. 4 in the U.S., behind Yahoo, Google Inc.’s Gmail and Microsoft.

Next Article

Featured Slide Shows

Gripping photos: The people of the Turkey protests (slideshow)

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • The protests take on a festive element as police forces move out of the park and square. Wearing a gas mask, this young man dances to traditional Turkish music in front of Taksim Square’s Ataturk Monument.

  • In Gezi Park since March 31st, this protester, originally caught off-guard by the Government’s teargas and water cannons, went out and bought a Russian army mask from WWII, preparing for what was to come.

  • This rambunctious boy seems to be enjoying the chaos. After taking this picture he threw a stone at the already destroyed building in the background.

  • Forming a line, the police face off directly with protesters in Taksim Square. After a while, they retreated and there was a general cheer – a back-and-forth dance that has been common since the beginning of this protest.

  • An elderly woman in Gezi Park reads the news. The tent community occupying the park was violently destroyed on June 16th.

  • Many different groups had set up booths to promote their cause in Taksim Square and Gezi Park. Standing in front of one, this man waves his flag while posing with conviction.

  • Many home-remedies are used to minimize the effects of tear gas. This woman has put a milky solution on her face, removing her mask after the tear gas dissipated. Before sunrise, the police came again for another round of teargasing.

  • People capitalize on the uprising -- selling flags, beer, gas masks, sky lanterns and spray paint to name just a few of the popular items.

  • On Monday morning, June 11, the police execute a strong offensive. Many plain-clothed police officers, like the ones seen here, clash with protesters in the side streets away from the main stand-off in Taksim.

  • The authorities seem to be most aggressive in the night, pushing protesters away from the square and park. After being teargassed this young woman catches her breath with other protesters on Siraselviler Street.

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Comments

0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( settings | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>